The wick is the heart and soul of a kerosene heater. The heater
itself may be very old, but if the heater has been well cared for,
all it needs is a new wick to begin life anew. A nearly new heater
in perfect condition, but with a bad wick or contaminated fuel,
will not burn well and produce clean, odor free heat as well as a
century old heater with a new wick!

Unpinned wick

Pinned wick

Wick sleeves

The wick sleeve for an
unpinned wick has sharp barbs on the inside to hold the wick
in place. The pins (if any) are on the sleeve itself.

Pinned wick sleeves have 3
holes for the pins on the wicks to go through, as shown above.
Click on the photos to enlarge them.

The heater wick should be the correct wick
for your heater, not a generic model sold
for the convenience of some local hardware store clerk
who never used a kerosene heater in his life. The
wick should also be made by a long-time reputable
replacement wick manufacturer such as Hattersley in
England, or an OEM factory wick. Quality CUI
replacement wicks made by Hattersley often cost half
the price of an OEM wick, and work just as well.
The main concern is correct wick size and thickness and
the inherent quality of the wick
itself.

Not all wicks are created
equal. A wick which is too thin (too
cheap) will cause excess vaporized hydrocarbons
(kerosene vapor) to pass through the wick gap,
overloading the catalytic converter and causing smelly
burning characteristics. Every day I
receive e-mail from people who want to know what is
wrong, guessing it is bad fuel. It is the
wick. They "saved" money by buying a cheap wick
and are in a Kero-World of hurt. And they didn't
save money! The wick was $2.00 less than I sell
them for, postage was $2.00 more, so the actual cost
was the same PLUS now they have to replace the cheap
wick with a quality wick engineered to burn properly,
just so they can live in the same house with the
heater. I will not sell cheap wicks, as a
kerosene heater will not operate properly with a lousy
wick.

The wicks I sell are
made in England by the company which made Aladdin wicks
for the past century and is the current OEM supplier of
Toyotomi and Corona wicks in Europe, and they have
optimized the fiberglass fiber thickness and density to
adsorb kerosene readily yet not burn on top, thus
lasting longer than thinner fiberglass
fibers.

If you absolutely depend
upon your kerosene heater to heat your home, your
heater needs regular
maintenance - and that includes wick replacement
every year. People who heat with wood have their
chimney cleaned, those who heat with a furnace replace
the filters when needed, and kerosene heaters need wick
replacement to function at full
efficiency.

Fiberglass wick top section.

"Fiberglass"
wicks have a top section which is fiberglass fibers
mated to a lower section of cotton fibers.
The two sections are joined with an orange cloth
band (shown above). Fiberglass wicks are
exceptionally tough and long lasting. The
ratty looking top section photographed at left was
from an old, beat up wick I burned in a trash
fire! The fiberglass is intact but no trace
remained of the cotton filaments and cloth
band. This is why a fiberglass wick can be
burned "dry" without harm.

If there is a band of carbon
deposits just below the top of the wick, fuel
cannot pass through that carbon sufficiently to
sustain a good, odor-free burn. (See
photo at right.)

If the wick
appears to be fine, but then burns with a
ragged-edged flame or the flame does not reach
up to curl around the top plate on the
catalytic converter by at least 1/2 inch, it's
replacement time.

If the heater is
hard to start even after dry burning the wick,
feel the side of the top edge of the wick you
can reach: If the wick is hard instead of
supple, then tar formation inside the wick
means it's time to replace the wick. This
is also indicated when the flame does not
spread quickly around the entire wick after
lighting.

If the wick has
water contamination to the extent that the
flame is the right height for awhile, then
burns irregularly and of uneven height, it's
time to replace the wick. Note, however,
that this condition can be caused by poor
quality kerosene, so check that by using new,
clear kerosene.

If the wick has not been "burned
dry" and the tar on
the wick becomes too thick, the wick can tear when
retracted to turn off the stove, and the wick must be
replaced.

If the wick
will not retract and continues to burn, take the
heater outside and blow out the flame. If the flames
will not blow out, the heater may need to be covered
with a wet blanket to smother the flame. Do not
spray the heater with water! Hot metal can warp
when hit with cold water, and the glass cylinder
chimney used on most radiant heaters
will shatter. Then follow the directions
below.

[Note:All-Cotton wicks such as the Perfection 500
and Aladdin Blue Flame wicks cannot be burned
dry - the wick itself will burn and turn to
ash.]

"Burning dry" fiberglass kerosene heater
wicksis important to
their efficiency. If the wick does not raise and lower
smoothly, it is time to burn it dry. It is best to
visually examine the wick after every use: if you
see tar balls on top of the wick it is time to burn dry.

After the stove has cooled down,
remove the catalytic converter, raise the wick and
gently crush the top of the wick with smooth faced
paddle bladed pliers. My favorite pliers for this use
is the Ace Hardware "Flat Nose Pliers"
#ACE2004216. The wick should then
retract.

Reassemble
the heater and remove all fuel. With a
convection heater that means siphoning out the
fuel. A side-tank radiant can simply have the
tank removed.

Replace the catalytic
burner unit.

Raise the wick
to maximum height. Light the wick and make sure the catalytic
converter burner unit is in place. Let it burn
completely out. First the fuel in the wick burns,
then the tar, and in an hour or so the wick is again
in pristine condition.

Because this process will
produce some odor, it should be doneoutside or under cover (garage with the door
open, etc), with no wind, as a strong draft can blow
out the weak flames burning tar deposits in the final
10 minutes of the dry burn.

After a good dry burn the heater

will burn at maximum efficiency for a
hundred hours or more until the wick again needs to
be burned dry, depending upon the fuel used (red dye
kerosene requires fouls the wick much more quickly
than 1-K clear). But
keep reading....

How long does it take to burn the wick
"dry"? That depends entirely upon the
heater design. Convection heaters must have
their fuel tanks siphoned empty, so they usually take
less than an hour to dry burn the wick. Most
radiant heaters have a side fuel tank which can be
removed - but you cannot empty the sump under the
wick. A Corona SX-2E will burn the wick dry in a
little over an hour, as will the Heat Mate HMHR
1101. The Toyotomi RCA-87 has a huge sump, and can
still be burning "dry" after 3 hours! Toyotomi
solved that problem with the Radiant 40; it has a very
shallow sump and burns dry within an hour...but the
shallow sump can easily spill fuel when the heater is
moved, so do not tip it when carrying!

How
often to "burn dry" a wick?There are a lot
of factors involved here. A new or nearly new wick
burning "water clear" 1-K kerosene should use at least 30
gallons of fuel before needing to be "burned dry."
When using red dye kerosene, some lots of the fuel the
wick will not need to have the wick burned dry for up to
15 gallons of kerosene consumed, while other batches of
red dye kerosene are bad enough to require burning the
wick dry after every 10 gallons of kerosene. The
red dye can cover up a lot of
sins.

Make sure you lower the wick after burning
dry. If the wick is "up" after dry burning and
you refuel and leave it up, then fuel can "wick" into the
catalytic converter and cause excessive smoking during
startup.

If your heater lights properly, then the
flame dwindles and goes out, there are
usually two causes to explore. The primary
cause is water in the wick or contaminated
fuel. While sitting unused, the wick can absorb
enough fuel to light and burn for up to 20 minutes or
so, then the capillary action is insufficient to
sustain the burn. This is covered below.
The second possibility of dwindling can be a
carbon or tar deposit down an inch or so from the top
of the wick - an obvious black ring around the
wick. This is caused by burning the heater with
the catalytic converter not properly seated, so air is
admitted at exactly the wrong place, or by having the
wick set too high (pinless wicks).
If the wick is not a rigid type*, remove the
wick, place a 2 x 4 through the wick, then using a
rubber mallet, gently pound on the ring to break up the
carbon deposit within the wick. Do not strike
anywhere near pins or clips, of course, or they may be
damaged. A carbon deposit that low on the wick
will not burn dry! (See photo
above) The wick will work, poorly, until you can obtain
a new replacement wick. A rigid wick* cannot be
even temporarily fixed in this way and must be replaced
for the heater to again work
properly.

*[Most kerosene heater
users are familiar with a flexible wick that can be
folded or flattened, as in the illustration
above. There are, however, wicks which are rigid,
hard and round, and come in a box. The most
common of the rigid wicks are #15, 16, 20 (& A, B),
34, 35, 36, 37, 37A, 38, 38A, etc.. [Wick #500 is
all cotton, in a metal carrier, cannot be burned dry
and must be replaced.]

Remember that the capillary action of
wicks is virtually destroyed by
water...cotton in particular will absorb
water, then the lighter kerosene is denied a capillary
"path" to the top of the wick. Performance (clean, odor
free heat output) is seriously degraded by even a
little
water in the kerosene.

If you find
yourself with only cloudy kerosene and no alternative
fuel available, the kerosene can be slowly filtered
through a chamois cloth in a large funnel. Wring out
the chamois and repeat until the fuel is clear.
Or if you're high tech, funnels which filter out
water are readily available.

Due to the high
degree of combustion efficiency with kerosene heaters,
it is not necessary to add any scents to the kerosene
-- why add an aroma when none is present? (That does
not hold true for cheap flat wick kerosene lamps, as
they do not have a combustor unit and thus are
relatively inefficient.)

IF A WICK WILL NOT LIGHT OR STAY
LIGHTED

The usual problem with a
wick not lighting is that it has absorbed water from
the fuel. A kerosene heater stored over the summer with
fuel in the tank, even a little fuel, can induce
condensation. As little as a teaspoon of water absorbed
by the lower cotton portion of the wick will inhibit
the capillary action of the cotton fibers and result in
a wick which will not light simply because fuel is not
available to the fiberglass fibers on top of the
wick. See
water in the kerosene.

Changing the kerosene in the fuel tank does not effect
the water already present in the wick.

Correct adjustment of flame height for
kerosene heaters, usually with the wick set
just less than a half inch showing at maximum
height adjustment.

To find a wick for a really odd or rare
kerosene heater, perhaps with a peculiar
brand name, you will have to measure the existing wick
diameter and length, following the directions
I have provided, then
e-mail me with the measurements. I can almost
always find a wick that will fit
precisely.